PROFILE
Binomial Name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Place of Origin: Native to central-western and south western China, in the mountain ranges
Diet: Primarily Herbivorous, however, it is classified as a carnivoran
Feeds on 99% Bamboo
(Occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, rodents, birds or carrion.)
Size: 1.5m long and 0.75m tall
Weight: Malesà 330kg
Femalesà 125kg
BEHAVIOR
In the wild, the Giant Panda is a terrestrial animal and primarily spends its life roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains and in the hilly Sichuan Province. Though generally alone, each adult has a defined territory and females are not tolerant of other females in their range. Pandas communicate through vocalization and scent marking such as clawing trees or spraying urine. The Giant Panda is able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock crevices but does not establish permanent dens. For this reason, pandas do not hibernate, which is similar to other subtropical mammals, and will instead move to elevations with warmer temperatures. Pandas rely primarily on spatial memory rather than visual memory.
Social encounters occur primarily during the brief breeding season in which pandas in proximity to one another will gather. After mating, the male leaves the female alone to raise the cub.
**SADLY, THE GIANT PANDA IS CLASSIFIED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES!!**
Why are Pandas endangered?
The Giant Panda is an endangered species, threatened by continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity.The Giant Panda has been a target for poaching by locals since ancient times and by foreigners since it was introduced to the West. Starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach Giant Pandas in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat, and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demand for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Due to farming, deforestation and other development, the panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.
Because of pollution and destruction of their natural habitat, along with segregation due to caging, reproduction of wild pandas was severely limited.
China
In-situ Conservation
In-situ conservation means ‘on-site conservation’. It is the process of protecting endangered plants or animal species in their natural habitat.
The Chinese government is the largest agent in promoting positive changes for the Giant Panda. Other organisations, like Zoos SA, work with the government to promote in situ conservation efforts.
By mid-2005, the Chinese government had established over 50 panda reserves. This protects more than 10,400km2 and over 45% of remaining panda habitat. There are also efforts to ensure there are natural corridors between panda populations so that a healthy mixing of genes can occur.
Other conservation infrastructure includes installing communication networks in reserves, creating environmental education programs near protected areas, analysing impact of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity, and developing plans to restore degraded bamboo forests.
Environmental Education Program in Sichuan mountains, China
September 2010
September 2010
Conservation Ark recently sponsored an environmental education program to help with conservation of Giant Pandas in the wild.
An Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) program has been teaching local primary and secondary students of remote villages about protecting biodiversity in their backyard – the beautiful and rugged mountains of the Giant Panda Sanctuaries World Heritage Area.
Conservation Ark, together with UNESCO, sponsored threatened species posters (jpg) developed for the environmental education ‘road show’. These posters were donated to each of the seven remote schools that participated in the program, and each child - over 400 students - received a bookmark (a synopsis of the poster) to keep. These and other props, prizes, interactive games, and a panda 'role play' helped to cross the language divide and teach the students the importance of protecting species and habitat.
As these children will be the future land stewards, environmental education programs are ever-more critical for long-term conservation of these important areas.
An estimated 1/7 of the wild pandas in the world live in Pingwu County in northern Sichuan province. About 1/3 of the pandas in Pingwu County are protected in Wanglang Nature Reserve and the two other reserves in the county.
Wanglang Nature Reserve, in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has a continuing effort to improve panda protection efforts and panda habitat in Wanglang and all of Pingwu County.
WWF is an international wildlife conservation organization. Funding for WWF's work in Pingwu County is provided by WWF-UK, WWF-Nederthands, and WWF-US.
Why Pingwu County?
Of the estimated 1500 pandas that survive in the wild today, approximately 280 live in Pingwu County. Including captive pandas, approximately 1/7 of all pandas in the world live in Pingwu County! There are 3 panda reserves in Pingwu County, but 200 of the 280 pandas in the county live outside these 3 reserves. Therefore, all of Pingwu County, not just the reserves, is important in panda preservation efforts.
Pingwu County, particularly Wanglang, is also important because it borders on panda habitat and several reserves in adjacent counties. Protecting the panda habitat in Pingwu County helps to ensure panda migration routes are accessible. Then, when bamboo in one area where pandas live flowers and dies, the pandas will be able to move to new areas and will have bamboo to eat.
Camera traps provide a snaphot of the panda at home
Education
Training and capacity building
Between 1996 and 2000, WWF trained more than 300 panda reserve staff and local government officials in nature reserve management, wildlife monitoring, anti-poaching patrolling, and innovative community-based conservation approaches.
Environmental educationIn 1997, WWF initiated a community-based conservation programme in Pingwu County, Sichuan province, home to the largest concentration of pandas in China.
The programme teaches local people how to protect panda habitat without compromising their economic livelihood, by training them in sustainable logging methods, introducing new income-generating activities like ecotourism, and raising local awareness about conservation.
Outside Pingwu County
The influence of this WWF project may, and has already to some extent, reach beyond Pingwu County.
- The development of an eco-tourism capability at Wanglang Reserve will provide much needed income to the Reserve. This project may be a catalyst for other reserves to create eco-tourism facilities and programs.
- Wanglang is currently using a geographic information system (GIS) in their resource management efforts and has shared their expertise in this area with other reserves.
- Create new reserves
· Since the logging ban in 1998, the balance has begun to shift from deforestation to forest restoration.
· Much of the panda's habitat has been outside of the reserve system making it difficult to protect from the threat of logging, poaching and harvesting for traditional Chinese medicines.
· Corridor over highway When national highway 108 was re-routed with a tunnel, WWF and the Shaanxi province took the opportunity to plant 87 hectares of bamboo and establish a link between two panda communities in the Qinling Mountains.
· Link isolated bamboo habitats
To connect pandas that live in isolated pockets of wilderness, WWF have identified zones that can be turned into corridors of bamboo so pandas can find more food and more importantly meet new breeding mates.
· The Chinese government, in partnership with WWF, created 10 corridors in Qinling and Minshan.
· No panda is an island
· Pandas live in 20 habitats within their current range. These zones are like islands of wilderness that contain the two essential ingredients for panda survival – bamboo and other pandas.
These zones are cut off from each other by roads, farms, cities and other human development. The Chinese government, in partnership with WWF, are now working to link these isolated panda habitats with corridors of bamboo forest.
By creating green bamboo corridors that link these zones, like a bridge connecting an island, this will allow the remaining pandas to extend their range, find more food and find other pandas to mate with and increase their population and their genetic diversity.